If Mayor Bloomberg thought that by ignoring the city’s financial problems until the gubernatorial election he would receive Albany’s help in reinstituting the commuter tax, the first debate among the candidates appears to have given him reason to reconsider. The debate was, for the most part, a snooze fest. The major candidates — would-be kings George Pataki and H. Carl McCall and would-be king-killer Thos. Golisano — hugged the middle of the road, while the minor candidates added whatever little interest there was with outside-the-box proposals. But in one rapid round the candidates were asked about restoring the commuter tax.

The two green candidates — one Stanley Aronowitz of the Green Party and one Thos. Leighton of the Marijuana Reform Party — both reckoned the tax should be restored. Then Mr. Leighton, apparently suffering from amnesia about the commuter tax in the past, said he was for a “temporary” restoration. Mr. Aronowitz, who is presently distributing a button that reads, “See Red Vote Green,” argued for the tax on the grounds that “We need the money.” Scott Jeffrey of the Libertarian Party, himself the founder of the pro-Marijuana group Legalize, argued against the tax on the revolutionary grounds that “You shouldn’t pay a tax without representation.”

The major candidates, however, offered no comfort to the mayor. Mr. McCall said, “I’m against reinstituting the commuter tax.” Mr. Pataki, though more expansive, agreed with his opponent, saying that after September 11 some 377,000 jobs were “displaced” in the city, and “We have to fight to bring every one of those back, some from other states. To reimpose the commuter tax would be the wrong thing.” In other words, when all seven had their say, the mayor’s idea for the commuter tax was supported by the party whose main agenda is the legalization of marijuana and the party peddling left-wing responses to environmental problems.

We’d like to think there’s a message here — whoever is elected governor is not about to roll over in the midst of a statewide fiscal crisis (for which Mr. Pataki’s generous election year budget is in no small part to blame) and allow the mayor, who needs Albany’s approval for virtually all tax moves, to create or raise taxes. Only one debater, Thos. Golisano of the Independence Party, tied his rejection of the tax to a broader vision of what might be called supply-side measures to invigorate the economy. The debate suggests there will be a continued need to press the winning candidate to stick to his Sunday vows.